1. Field of the Invention
The presently disclosed subject matter relates to an imaging device including a plurality of optical systems having a parallax, and more particularly, to a technique of preventing or minimizing a difference in an AF (automatic focus adjustment process) process or an AE (automatic exposure process) process between the plurality of optical systems.
2. Description of the Related Art
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2005-173270 discloses a stereoscopic image taking optical device which causes left and right parallax images formed through left and right objective optical systems, to be alternately imaged, and also can adjust a convergence distance between the left and right objective optical systems by rotating mirrors provided in the left and right objective optical systems respectively. The stereoscopic image taking optical device includes an auto-focus device having an auto-focus function, and an auto-focus device which can cause the auto-focus device to function for each image of the left and right parallax images which have been alternately taken.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 8-194274 discloses a stereoscopic imaging device mainly configured with two lens systems which obtain imaging information for the left eye or the right eye; a detection circuit which detects focus positions, eye direction angles and the like related to the lens systems; a CPU (central processing unit) including an area operation circuit which performs an operation of a focus detection range of a common subject for the two lens systems based on the detected information, a distance operation circuit, and the like; and a camera driving circuit for focus adjustment which performs the focus adjustment within the common detection range obtained from the operation.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2008-209760 discloses spot exposure metering, weighted averaging metering, and averaging metering. The spot exposure metering is a system for performing light metering only a predetermined region in a limited manner. The weighted averaging metering is a system for weighting a predetermined region and performing averaging metering for the entire region of a screen of a taken image. The averaging metering is a system for performing the averaging metering for the entire region of the screen of the taken image without weighting the predetermined region.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2009-47498 discloses a technique of detecting a feature point and a corresponding point in a stereo camera.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2009-282117 discloses a technique of flash light adjustment.